Computer systems, as with other operating environments, have found numerous applications in the industrial automation environment and are employed ubiquitously throughout, e.g., to control the operation of a device, machine, process, and the like. To facilitate control of a process, etc., one or more controllers are utilized with I/O devices controlling operation of the process along with gathering process information (e.g., measurements, data, values, parameters, variables, metadata, etc.) pertaining to how the process is performing. To maximize interaction of an operator with the process, the process information can be forwarded from the controller to one or more interfaces, also known as human machine interfaces (HMI's), graphical user interfaces (GUI), terminals, and the like, for display to the operator. Upon review of the displayed process information, and in conjunction with hard and soft controls associated with the interface, the operator can further adjust the process as required to facilitate correct process operation. Commands can be generated at the interface, forwarded to the controller, and accordingly acted upon by the controller. For example, the temperature of a furnace can be detected by a thermocouple, signals are sourced from the thermocouple by the controller, forwarded by the controller for display on the interface, whereupon an operator notices a drop in the furnace temperature, presses an ‘increase temperature’ control, and a furnace heater is switched on in response, via the controller.
However, in a conventional system, the various parameters, measurements, data, values, variables, metadata, etc., comprising the process information, have to be generated for each respective interface monitoring the process regardless of whether any of the interfaces are receiving process information which is also being displayed on another interface. Such operation of generating unique packets of data in response to each process information data “pull” request generated by each interface monitoring a process is inefficient and places unnecessary operational burden on a controller associated with the process.
The above-described deficiencies of conventional interface-controller systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems and techniques, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and techniques, and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.